abc's steve osunsami has the story. >> reporter: after a 17-year murder mystery and then a bizarre trial with waseem daker, an ex-con, acting as his own attorney and frightening victims on the witness stand -- >> we found him glgt as to count two. >> reporter: jurors moved quickly, closing this cold case in three, short hours. finding daker guilty of strangling karmen smith in 1995, as an act of revenge against her housemate, loretta blatz, who was working with authorities to send him to jail for stalking her. >> a great day for karmen smith and her family. we're thrilled with the outcome of the case. >> reporter: prosecutors called him a monster and an obsessed maniac, who after killing smith, waited all day for her 5-year-old son to come walking home from school, walking through these sliding glass doors. nicholas smith was stabbed 18 times and survived. he's now 22. and after jurors read the verdict, he and his family hugged and cried. >> she was a beautiful, caring outgoing mom, whose son, nick, was the number one thing in her life. she was taken from us way too soon by a stabbing mo